Worry-Free Security Wards Off Infection

Like many small businesses, Stonegate Designs is always looking for ways to do more with less. The St. Joseph, Mich.-based maker of custom lighting designs for hospitality clients had been using separate enterprise-class antivirus and antispyware applications for data protection. But the cost of managing license renewals for two security solutions began to escalate.

That led Bill Beadenkopf, Stonegate’s manager of information services, to look for an all-in-one solution designed for small businesses. Beadenkopf chose Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security. He got the bundled antivirus and antispyware solution he needed, as well as other features that help protect Stonegate’s data. The Worry-Free flexible URL filter has been particularly handy for controlling the use of social networking sites.

“We were looking at how can we limit access to time wasters, but there are some individuals who require access to those sites for marketing,” Beadenkopf says. “I didn’t want to block them all or I’d have some very mad users.” He discovered that Trend Micro offers time-based filters, which allow the administrator to filter sites during working hours, and unblock them before or after hours. “That has proved very effective. If somebody is trying to abuse that, I get an e-mail notification, and I can notify their supervisor.”

Beadenkopf was similarly pleased with the way he could configure the POP3 e-mail scanner to ensure that Stonegate’s mobile workers would have the access they need. “I was a little suspicious at first of the e-mail virus checking,” he says. “We have some users that use BlackBerrys, so they’re checking their mail away from the office. I was a little worried that it would create a conflict there, but it hasn’t.”

In addition to the cost savings, Beadenkopf says the peace of mind that comes with comprehensive protection in one package has made life easier for him and for Stonegate’s employees.

“Before we had this universal protection, we did get some infections,” Beadenkopf says. “There was some panic — people running around not knowing what to do because they couldn’t use their machines while we were running scans and troubleshooting. Now I don’t have to put up with those infections, which can be big time hogs.”

By The Numbers

$188,242: The average annual cost of cyberattacks for U.S. SMBs, including loss of productivity, revenue and direct financial costs Source: Symantec (2010)

52%: The percentage of small- and medium-size businesses in the United States and the United Kingdom that have no IT security guidelines for their staff Source: AVG Technologies (2010)

23%: The percentage of small organizations that are less likely than large companies to have preventive data-leak policies in place Source: Trend Micro (2010)

59%: The percentage of IT managers citing malware as a main driver of increased IT operating expenses Source: Lumension Security (2010)

35%: The percentage of SMBs hurt financially by malware introduced through social media, with more than a third losing in excess of $5,000 Source: Panda Security (2010)

$25 million: The cost of malware-related cyberscams to U.S. small business owners in the third quarter of 2009 Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (2010)